Dashiell Hammett, a Life (1987) is a biography of our subject, born May 27, 1894, by a woman better known for her novels, Diane Johnson. We can assume, based on this book, that cats were not a big deal for Hammett. What we do have, though, is a lovely metaphor, from a great short story, "The Man Who Killed Dan Odams." This early story was first published in the January 15, 1924 issue of The Black Mask. The plot concerns a fugitive in the mountainous West.
The first road he came to bent up toward Tiger Butte. ...
Of an isolated setting of several ramshackle buildings Hammett says:
The group seemed asprawl in utter terror of the great cat upon whose flank it found itself. .......
You want to read this story. It may not be online. The story is worthy of the author of The Maltese Falcon.
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